The unlikely fisherman

Four decades ago when my brother was hitchhiking in Oregon, he encountered a young fisherman who happened to mention that he throws up daily from seasickness. When my brother inquired as to why he continues to fish, the unlikely seafarer replied, “Because my father was a fisherman.”

I speak at retreats every now and then, and just before I stand up at the podium in front of a group, I feel like that young man from Oregon. Then after the first talk I am a lot better and the program generally proceeds uneventfully.

The reason I feel queasy before speaking is that I am not a retreat speaker by natural endowment. In this I take comfort in remembering other people who have been chosen to do things for which they were not naturally endowed.

Like Moses, the messenger to Pharaoh with a speech impediment:

“… Moses said to the LORD, ‘Oh my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue” (Exodus 4:10, ESV).

Like Gideon, who felt like a nothing:

“Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house” (Judges 6:15, ESV).

Like Jonah, the missionary to Ninevites who hated Ninevites:

“But [the wholesale conversion of Nineveh] displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry” (Jonah 4:1, ESV).

Like Jeremiah, who thought he was too young and inexperienced for the job of prophet, so that God had to rebuke him:

“Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go …” (Jeremiah 1:7, ESV).

Like the Apostle Paul, who was not a trained speaker (or so he said to the Corinthians):

“Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not so in knowledge …” (2 Corinthians 11:6, ESV).

Like Timothy his disciple, who apparently was lacking in natural confidence:

“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:6–7, ESV).

God evidently does what He wants with those with whom He wants to do it. And when we accept the job willingly there is a reward. If not willingly, then we must do it anyway:

“… necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship” (1 Corinthians 9:16–17, ESV).

And for those unlikely deliverers, warriors, spokesmen, and missionaries who do accept the job willingly, they may well find that by the supernatural endowment overcoming their paltry natural endowment they experience character development as they are …

“… made strong out of weakness …” (Hebrews 11:34, ESV).

Andrée Seu Peterson’s Won’t Let You Go Unless You Bless Me, regularly $12.95, is now available from WORLD for only $5.95.